New Family Photos!

The day before Ben was baptized, we met up with our great friend Dan, of Dan Shaw Photography, and took some new family photos at Lake Elizabeth in Fremont. These are most of my favorites.

It's really making me want to take down everything in my home, put in new pictures, spray paint frames, make new art, and put it all back up. Sounds exhausting.

With Mom and Dad and his Godparents, Scott (Smalls) and my sister Stephanie, who were also
our best man and maid of honor.

 This is squinch face. We see it a lot these days. I don't know where it comes from, but he will squeeze his eyes shut and breathe really fast in and out of his nose, its so adorable and funny. Check out the "gelled" hair (baby wipe gel). We had a little bit of crazy bedhead goin on before the photo shoot and had to slick that wispy stuff down.

My tired boy was ready for a nap the minute we got there. What you don't see is the five other people literally jumping up and down behind Dan, yelling and shaking toys in the air. Ben cracked about two smiles and was spent. Oh well!

Life is One Grand Sweet Song

 And Maritza Spieller was onstage yesterday, playing her part. One of my favorite aspects of living near a college is the culture you can absorb. The best and the brightest are striving to achieve the most that they can in their chosen arenas and there are so many opportunities to sit and watch them shine. In a word: enriching.

 Pizza (rhymes with Maritza, natch) is one of our good friends, and she was giving the exit performance of her college career, a goodbye concert to her colleagues, professors and friends. It was beautiful to be there and we were so glad we showed up alongside so many others to support her. There was some fear that there wouldn't be enough room for all who wanted to watch her perform one last time.

 This makes it look like we brought those flowers. We did not. Since having a child I am that person again: tripping over my own feet to try and not make a social gaffe around every corner. Flowers? Ugh, that would have been a good idea!

 The loving details were so touching. Her family put so much into this celebration of her achievements. We were able to just show up and drink it in.

 Cheesecake bars. They will change your life.

 How cute are the miniature M&M trombones??

Look at Maritza's adorable purple details. Fantastic. We love you Pizza, and we were so proud to be there. Thank you for playing for us!

Holy Camera Upgrade, Batman!

In the last twenty-four hours, your humble host, moi, has only come up with one witty phrase to accompany this drastic change in quality. I was even brave enough to blow these photos up to "X-Large" on this here blog, because can we say "AMAY-zing?!" I didn't post all of them, including the notable aquamarine eyes one, but you can see them on my facebook page. No doubt you just came from there and don't need to go back, so I only posted one repeat offender. More to come.

So this is kind of a fake out. We are borrowing a friend's Nikon D40 to take it on a test drive (or more appropriately, a cross-country tour because I am obsessed). So we are giving it back tomorrow. I took the opportunity to do a quickie photo shoot in our back yard, because the poor little man is super sick and his coughing scares people. People like his mom and dad. We had a photo shoot for Easter scheduled on Saturday but I had to email the photographer and cancel.

The Reveal of Some Gorgeous Maternity Photos

Okay, here they are! Dan Shaw's beautiful photo shoot. Click here if you would like to order: Dan Shaw Photography. Username and password are Thomas and Maternity.

We did these almost two weeks ago, and it was really fun, we love spending time with Dan, not to mention getting a pack of professional photos out of it! True to legend, after the shoot, Dan took off on some trips to Napa and Barcelona (he works as a cycling tour guide for a high end travel company). Oh, Dan, if you just hung around my life all day, my blog would look as awesome as my blog hero, who you can check out here, if you like. Well, maybe minus the luxury knits and flawless crafts and baking, but I have room to grow.

So, as promised (to myself), a list of things I love about my life, in true Kelle Hampton style:

I love the way the guys from Rayne tear in and out of my cul de sac/garage like the fate of the world depends on bringing me soft water.

I love Al-Anon, my kind, supportive and beautiful sponsors, and the doors it opened for me.

I love our huge bed at night. I love the way Skinny puts her little chin on my arm or her paw in my hand when we curl up to go to sleep. I love knowing that cuddling with Ben will be a trillion times better. I love laying in the dark, listening to Scott breathing (and sometimes snoring… Fatso also snores, but they haven’t become a chorus yet- really excited for that day). I love the sounds of the fan and the small noises outside. I love how we can have all the windows open all through the winter and stay cozy underneath my beautiful silk Pottery Barn bedding. I don't splurge on very much, but in my opinion, your bed is the thing to splurge on. I love that any time of night, if I nudge Scott, he will cuddle closer without waking. I love that when I come back from the bathroom and want him to turn over I just have to whisper "I'm the big spoon". Its the perfect hour for prayer, because its so easy to think of all that I am thankful for, just in that feeling of being tucked up next to Scott and the kitties in the quietness that is our town. Always feeling safe, warm and loved.

I love that something in our living room makes an inexplicable sound. For awhile, it sounded like a long lost cell phone, buried somewhere under a piece of furniture, that would vibrate at random. Steph and I scoured the place for it, only to find out weeks later that it was Scott's industrial grade Blackberry vibrating on the bedside table upstairs...(!!).... Now there's something new that sounds like a facebook chat- a little "pop", like one huge drip from a leaky faucet. Zero explanations so far.

I love the exciting, panicky, disgusting, exhilirating, painful experience of pregnancy. I would have gone without it if I had to. I would have accepted adoption as our path to parenthood and embraced my never-been-cohabited-body if that had been the case. However, it did arrive, and although yesterday and today have had their excruciating and icky moments (I'll spare you, don't worry), I do savor this. Especially when I pull together the energy to get my hair done and smile for Dan... because then pregnancy feels beautiful.